infant in the arms
of the madonna
father instructing
his son to be
a man
mother teaching
her daughters the perfections
of womanhood
students
in the embrace of their
teacher
apprentices polishing
the work for their master
disciples blessed
with the simplest seed
of understanding
scientists & philosophers
pledged to test
new thought
the first idea
of the human mind
is as firmly
latched to the
last
as the founding
peptides of
dna
define our blood
& breath
the fate of all
things living
is in our own
hands
we the people
are eight billion
interconnected yearning
human brains
we the living
enfold
a zillion zillion zillion
throbbing veins––
the oozing green
beneath
the bark of the oak tree––
the surging neck of the
galloping giraffe
there is no limit
to loving or
love’s divine fragility
for all of our powers
we are not wise
gods
in one generation
of forgetting––
if the triumph of selfishness
summons
the dark––
this world will collapse
without a cough or a whimper
& mindlessly disappear